A Somewhat Serious Talk Disrupted

A week was ushered in quite quickly, at least to the group of four. They spent the entire week clearing the street in a mile radius of the base to facilitate future travel, also spending the rest of the time on physical training. Now was considered a rest day as they were expecting a certain visitor to come over. Aiden was reading a book, while Oliver was leaning on him and chatting with a bubbly Hillary. Shilah was using the gas stove to boil some hot water for tea. Their days could be considered leisurely if the intense cleanup and training were not counted.

Everyone else in this apocalyptic world was either hiding in their homes or decided to venture out to any strongholds that could support a community with both safety and resources.

Though, none of them really concerned Oliver and Aiden. Their former comrades and base members would eventually come in one way or another, that was something that they were certain of. Their certainty did not originate from years of trust and living together, but rather knowing that at this time, their base was the only safe option for most who traveled through these roads.

One road leads further into the countryside, where it had become a lot more popular in the last days with both the undead and the living. The other leads to the city. Oliver and Aiden had never really seen much of the bases in the city, mainly cause they had no need to go explore the area as they had everything they needed within their reach. However, they were curious and inquired much about it from their trading partners from the main city base, the military's to be precise. The men who came often only complained about the strict control of the military and expressed jealousy of the resources held by Oliver and Aiden's base, but never really delved into the specifics of the city base.

Oliver had casually inquired about the military base as he finally remembered to ask about the situation of the city for her and the cause of her death. His lover twisted his face in the other's usual lack of tact and curiosity in his question but did not stop his words as they needed to know the real situation in the city bases eventually. Whereas Shilah was a bit more expressive and was about to scold him.

The brunette quickly waved her hand as if it would physically clear up the gloominess of Shilah.

"Don't sweat about it. The military base itself has... different values than your base. Well, it did want everyone to live and survive the best they could, but it also valued the future of humanity. In that sense, women were very valuable." Hillary gave a short sneer.

A silent paused was allowed to let everyone in the vicinity to realize the not-so underlying meaning of her words.

"Wow. That's disgusting." Shilah spat out those three words, which gained the approval of both Oliver and Aiden. There weren't many other words to describe their disgust for them.

"Well, I'm not actually sure when it started. After the first year or so, I think the base was pretty good, I guess. But, when people realized women were severely outnumbered, or maybe when the military base leaders forced both civilians and soldiers to risk their lives, or when the strict monitoring started happening? Just an entire craze for women happened, or anyone that seemed feminine enough. Probably looking for a source of comfort and hope for the future. Though, they said it was for humanity's future." She chuckled with amusement on the topic.

Shilah sunk down into the couch next to Hillary and laid a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, to which Hillary shook her head to show her lack of emotion for her former base.

Oliver patiently waited, while Aiden began to write down her words in a notebook.

"Well, you know the rest, Shilah and I fled to your base but we were killed in the crossfire of a fight before we could make it. As for the perpetrators of our deaths... hmm... They looked like they were from your base, but seemed so out of place. So pretty and shiny. I kinda hate them." Hillary ended on a slightly giddy note and shrugged her shoulders.

Shilah, on the other hand, was a bit more emotional.

"Kinda? Kinda?! I hate them already! From your words, not only did we have zombies attack us but also men trying to vie for our bodies?! Then when we finally escaped that hell hole for women, we just died?! I-I can't settle for this!" The blonde burst out in pure anger, already fuming the moment Hillary started talking.

"Well, we scarred our faces so they couldn't tell if we were women or not at first glance, either way, we were considered undesirable at that time. But, we were in constant danger of some people that had weird tastes or just weren't picky."

"We scarred our faces?! And we had to do it to survive against horny men!?!"

While Shilah was extremely angry and spouting out her hate for the military base, men in the city, and, in her words, 'those damn little murderers who think they could do anything cause they're just good looking,' Hillary had a goofy smile as she enjoyed her companion's "care."

Oliver rubbed his eyes in slight irritation at that base. He wasn't some man filled with justice and he knew Aiden wouldn't risk everyone in the base to just change the status quo of another base miles away. But, it was disheartening to see people fall below the bare minimum of being a human.

The sentimentality that women held responsibility in repopulating the earth was, unfortunately, not uncommon. Oliver had not really cared for the future of the entirety of mankind. He was only focused on keeping those he likes and cares about alive and trying to improve their quality of life. And as the confidant of the base leader, who shared those same ideals, had the base reflect those values: Just survive and live well. Aiden does help a lot of people, especially if they join the base, but anyone outside that range was given as much help that he could give before leaving them to their own devices and let them flourish on their own, that is if they were strong enough.

Other than that awful sentimentality, it was just hypocritical. If humanity truly wanted to think of future generations, perhaps the apocalypse would not have begun in the first place. It was more than likely that the zombie virus was manmade. There were no special meteorites nor an alien phenomenon. The virus quickly came and overtook humanity. After three years, there was no peep of the actual cause of the virus.

So, it could only be concluded at the virus was created and released by a group of scientists that were supported by the government, seeing that the virus spread throughout the world quite quickly. As for if it were an accident or planned? Did it matter at that point? Why were they even making an infectious virus anyways?

Oliver sighed deeply, being overcome with melancholy. Humanity was its own worse enemy on Earth.

He quickly snapped out of his little dramatic episode from the scratching sound of a pencil next to him. His eyes followed from the rough hands holding a mechanical pencil up to the muscular arm and ending up at the handsome, grimacing face.

Scooting over to look at the notes written by Aiden, Oliver quickly scanned over the numerous sentence and also ended up wearing a disgusted expression.

It was the actions of those "flowers" again. In the entirety of their base, only one group could be identified and known for both beauty and cleanliness.

"Ah, Aiden, it looks like your harem managed to get them too, huh?" Oliver said it out loud, gaining the strange looks from Hillary and Shilah. A harem? Right under Oliver's eyes? No, wait, what was more important was the fact that they knew this group of pretty-good-for-nothings.

Aiden immediately turned red from both anger and embarrassment. Oliver bent over laughing from Aiden's expression, the same one that forms every time he mentions the fake harem.

"Don't call those disgusting things that. I don't even want to hear about them! I only love you anyway!" Aiden took the chance to make a quick declaration of love and held his hand intimately.

Oliver, under the eyes of three people, dramatically swooned from his lover's words and fell into the arms of Aiden. Playing along, Aiden wore a smile and positioned Oliver onto his lap. His hands supported Oliver's back and underneath his knees, in other words, a romantic princess carry. They both laughed from their own tactic antics. Oliver tugged Aiden's face down to his level and gently kissed his soft lips, Aiden reciprocated the kiss. Both were red from laughter and shyness (not enough shyness to make them stop kissing in front of the duo of women in front of them).

Shilah rolled her eyes and Hillary also chuckled a bit from the men's interactions. Hillary had even opened her arms to welcome Shilah to copy the men's actions but was denied with a harsh glare that was ignored as she grabbed Shilah's waist from behind and dragging her down onto the couch with her.

The seriousness that was formed previously had disappeared as they swept it under the rug. Either way, since that "harem" was here last time, they'd be here this time. And they'd get their revenge.